Final Day, now it rains

Wednesday - Lily was going to work from home again, so we hd another day sans dog. She made me matcha latte then sent us out. Without Charlie, we could go to the Tenement Museum. This museum is right across the street (Orchard) from Alec’s apartment (tenement) when he lived in the lower east side. It had been on my list for awhile. It’s not a typical museum where you pay a fee and wander from exhibit to exhibit. The founders bought an old tenement building that was largely untouched and restored it. They restored the different individual units into apartments of the some of the people who actually (and not) lived there,-into the era’s they were there. They have since also bough another building for more exhibition apartments. SO, when you go, you watch a short film about the place, and choose a tour. There are 3 walking tours of the neighborhood and a number of apartment tours depending on the day/time you are interested in going. If you are a member, I think you get a discounted rate. It kinds of rubbed me the wrong way, that I would need to pay $30 and only see one part of the building. We signed up for “Family Owned” and got see a restored saloon that was owned by a German couple in the 1860s and their adjoining apartment.

The tour was run by a very engaging 30 something gal and the interaction with her and the others on the tour was very insightful! We got to see about as much about their personal life as was possible to know. In the adjacent basement space, we saw the restored 1930 auction space of a jewish man, Max Marcus. I will be going on tours in the future. This experience made me want to further research my NYC ancestors. I know a lot about them, but where did they live? are the buildings still there? Their churches?

Tuesday was so warm, that Todd headed out Wednesday in just shirtsleeves. As we came out of the museum, the weather was definitely a bit chillier. We were hungry, so headed up to see what the line looked like at Katz’s (too long), so we went around the corner to place called Sweet Chick, where I had the best piece of carrot cake ever.

Brooklyn General Store is another place that had been on my list for a bit. So we took the F train and headed into Brooklyn. We walked down Union chatting with a gal and her standard Poodle who had Charlie’s coloring, of course she was also headed to BG. Inside I got a new DropCloth sampler, and fat quarter set and a 2 yard remnant of lovely Liberty of London. I can’t wait to make myself a shirt.

We walked up Henry toward Brooklyn Heights so that we could brownstone shop lol. If only I had a few more millions.

This place had super nice water garden just inside the railing.

As we walked, Todd got more and more chilly. I was actually OK, since I had worn my brand new Andrew Mowry Tesselated Vest :) I remembered that Alec told us to check out a clothing place in SOHO that had reasonable prices. We got the train on Montague and headed back. The store was reasonable and we stocked up a bit. The self checkout machine could read what we had ?!? I never saw that before. Unfortunately no bathroom, and I was just about dying.

I then walked a mile to a scone place that Alec and Lily suggested in Ukranian Village without noticing the helpful google comment that it wouldn’t be open until the following day. It was now steadily sprinkling.

The rain created multiple small issues,—if it had been clear, Lily and I were going to go to a Yoga class in Bryant Park. More importantly if it had been clear, we could have gone down to the tudor bridge and watched ManhattanHenge. I was SO looking forward to this. Twice a year the sun sets perfectly down 42nd st, and we were going to be there that week!. But it was rainy and super cloudy :(

https://weather.com/news/trending/video/clouds-may-block-new-yorks-manhattanhenge-sunset

There was a backup Yoga class in the building, so Lily and I suited up. The teacher didn’t show :(

Alec did find us a nice place for dinner and a 50% off coupon, so that’s nice. Final nights are so bittersweet. I could have stayed longer, Todd was ready to come home.

The following morning we packed up. Generally we get to Penn Station and take the train to our cheap commuter lot in Morristown. What with Charlie and all the bags, we took the most expensive Lyft ever, and got to the car about 9:30 and we got the kennel at 5:30.

All is well :) It was a good trip.

Time, Timeliness, Present

So, no great revelations have occurred to me over the past week. I’m trying, and it is a trial, to find better ways to divvy up my days and weeks. I am keeping my stupid daily to do lists, and actually allotting myself blocks of time for good as well as less fun activities. On Monday, I said “I WILL work outside for 2 hours” - then I did. It wasn’t super fun - but that one spot does look a bit better. I’ve said to myself, that I should ride my bike here, here, and here, and get on the treadmill these other days. These remaining days I’m allowed to rest.

Do you remember when you were a kid and you thought that once you were grown no one would tell you what to do? Do also remember the length of summer and its unstructured days?

I basically am making myself a chore chart. This feels so very germanic.

I was sitting in a doctor’s office last week ( another thing that it taking up too much time) and an older lady (probably younger than me lol) was talking to someone. She said something like, “My husband still goes into the office everyday, so I get up and we have breakfast together, then I take care of everything that needs done in the morning and then I have the WHOLE rest of the day for whatever I want! Shopping, lunch out with friends, whatever!” How very civilized. She can look around her life, see what needs to be done and then get on with it. Then on to lunch and afternoon shopping. (She also made mention of her Porsche, so maybe she has outside help for the heavy lifting). Still.

A while back, I spent a couple of days with Sean and family, helping out while Sean was on call. I asked Euan if he wanted to go to the park, he said no, he just wanted to play with trucks at home. I said OK, and started to play with the trucks. Rhuna was impressed with my flexibility (?) . I said that I really didn’t want to go to the park either - it was just something that I thought we “should do” lol. I was fine just laying on the floor parking cars. When Sean ( I mention him because we actually discussed this- the others may feel the same), talks about his childhood, he remembers being unhurried. He does not seem to remember my to do lists. Or I guess the calendar on the fridge that legit had 5 columns to accommodate all of our schedules. I’m glad that he (hopefully they), felt calm and unhurried.

So, I guess I’ll try to live a bit more like my son’s memory and like the waiting room lady. I’m going to strive to allocate a set amount of time to do the crap that I don’t relish, and when it’s done, it’s done (regardless of how far I’ve gotten). And then there will unhurried time for whatever.

What I have been spending loads and loads of time doing- is making a spring/summer wardrobe for sweet Una Baloona. She has clothes from Euan that fit her, but when she wears them people think she’s a boy, (lack of meaningful hair and all). So Rhuna requested girly clothes.

I of course start with a list- what does she have, and what do I think she needs. I’m happiest making these decisions on my own. If Rhuna wants something in particular, she’ll need to ask.

I felt that Una neeeded: 4 pairs of pants, 6 pairs of shorts, 5 knit shirts, 4 flouncy shirts (I only made 3 and 1 is actually more of a dress), 1 sweatshirt, 1 hoody that is like a jacket, and 2 dresses. Then I saw a pattern for an adorable shorty overall with a skirt that can button on top (!!!) so cute. All of these are basically done. I still intend to make her andf her her brother a set of rain pants and jackets from softshell.

I took some down to them before Easter and I have another pile here waiting to drive down to Columbus. So here you go:

In terms of knitting- I have also FINALLY finished the Nordic Mix sweater that I was working on for Lily. It is lovely and of course blocked a bit larger than I thought- this happens to me every stinking time. I worry that something will be too small, I adjust, then lo and behold it’s fine- actually a bit larger than I anticipated since I have forgotten once more about the magical powers of water. I will take this to her late May and will add a “complete” picture then.

So what am I working on now?

Knitting- I have picked up, again, Andrea Mowry’s Tessellated Vest- I was supposed to have gotten this done for Rhinebeck LAST YEAR! but I obviously didn’t. It’s a cropped vest- but it is taking me FOREVER. There are about a million slipped stiches in just about every row- so it actually like knitting maybe 6 vests. This was originally intended for me- I’m not certain anymore. I will wait to see how it fits. This is my first Andrea Mowry pattern. I like the way it looks, (obviously why I chose it) I don’t love the pattern- so many pages- I keep getting lost in them. I prefer to knit from charts- but the way the pages are formatted it forces me to read too much of the row by row- I kind of hate that. Sometimes I wonder- do knitwear designers deliberately add so many pages and “stuff” to their patterns so that I’ll think I am getting a good value? I much prefer EZ’s pith.

Sewing - I have a needlepoint pillow cover (cushion for you UK folks) to put together for a friend, I want to make the rain gear for the kids and I really do want to get the last 2 in process quilt tops done so that I can face the dilemma of quilting.

So enough for now- I must go take care of the junk- so I can get back to the Joy :)